Turn 3

Again one of the two batteries are ordered to hold canister. The right flank is ordered to fall back behind the town as the fairly solid line of troops advancing could easily take the two cavalry units. And I would be facing combined arms (infantry backed up with French cavalry). The hussars will remain in skirmish order to form a line. The cuirassiers are ordered to redeploy in a column and march to the road. I was thinking ahead to a possible column charge right down the road in a few turns. The cuirassiers in the middle are ordered to advance just a bit to be in line with the back of the Austrian line infantry; they are getting ready for the counter attack.

The turn opens and artillery fire begins. Nothing too exciting as we both loose some infantry. The French left flank attack continues to move forward towards the town. It ends as roughly three lines of troops. The first is two legere units. The second consists of two French line units with some hussars. The third is the French cuirassiers and a line infantry unit.

On the French right, about half migrates through the forest. The other half deploys into line opposing my center. There are some skirmishers across from my cuirassiers. It looks like a tempting target for a charge, but the French commander would have to do something stupid for me to take advantage of it at this range. A very unlikely possibility.

Only a little bit of fire on my right flank. I take a few casualties in the large building. The legere unit closest loses a few stands in turn. Otherwise, no one is in range.

Here are the pictures, moving from the Austrian left flank to the right.

Turn 4

Things promise to be much more interesting.

In the center, all three Austrian line infantry units are ordered to move forward; I expect they will end up in range. My cuirassiers are ordered to charge forward. With CLS rules, you can abort the charge after 6 inches if nothing is looking promising. However, if the French advance without caution... It isn't the grand sweeping counter attack out of the village I had envisioned, but the French just haven't left me a good opening. I'll have to take what I can get, and it is time to remind the French colonels in the center they can't dictate the pace of battle all by themselves.

I again intend to order one battery to hold canister, but forget to write the order! This could end up being very bad indeed. We have found most fog of war rules are not really necessary; you make enough mistakes on your own. Which usually leads to at least one battalion a game standing in place for a turn.

The hussars redeploy behind the guns to give them support. The cuirassiers form line behind the town centered on the road. I am not sure where I will need them next. Forming line gives me the maximum amount of flexibility for future redeployment. Men are detached to replace casualties in the large building (detachments can move 9 inches a turn in towns to do this; during the game I was misremembering it as 6 inches and began really worrying about being able to keep the buildings defended). The unit of grenadiers that had been behind the two story building is ordered to go from single line to double line, which gives me a free change of face. I'll still get to fire two of the four stands.

The turn begins. The French gun damaged in turn 1 is finally able to fire again. There is a little bit of a drift to the right. Instead of hitting the house, the French gain their revenge and damage one of my guns. Nuts. Better than having it destroyed outright. I return fire to take down a few more French line infantry. Not a fair trade, and the Austrian commander's morale takes a hit.

Movement begins. The deployments on my right go smoothly. This is a bit of a relief as things are starting to get crowded back there. If you misjudge a distance or two units start running into each other and can really mess things up. Another reason no fog of war rules are needed. You can't see it in any of the pictures, but the French place the two story house in a really nice L shaped fire trap. The two line units form the long part of the L, and the legere unit that was closest to the building forms the short part. More on what happens to them in a minute. The other legere unit (the elite one) continues to advance forward. The hussars move up even with them and are now the unit on the extreme French left flank. Meanwhile, the French cuirassiers redeploy towards their center. The guns escape as no one moves toward them; my forgotten hold canister order does not equal disaster this day.

My center infantry lumbar forward. The cuirassiers begin the charge at the trot. It becomes obvious to the cuirassier commander that the French are forming a large firing line essentially in place to blast him from the saddle. They halt the charge at the ridge line.

Fire this turn is absolutely brutal. Essentially both French and Austrians only roll 5's and 6's. As fire casualties are (number of men on stand)*(die roll)/10, I am killing 5-6 men per stand of Austrians. The French casualties in the center are limited by the fact that fire is stand to stand and the legere are stands of three (so the extra 2-3 casualties just disappear). However, the Austrian line in the center make the front line of troops opposing them disappear. In turn my battalion wing in the center right is simply hammered below CE (combat effectiveness) in one turn. This usually takes 2 turns to happen once infantry close range. On my right flank, the two story house takes tremendous amounts of casualties. But units in buildings ignore CE. In turn, they concentrate fire on the close legere unit missing from the pictures. It drops below CE.

CE is at 50% (from firepower not melee). CE checks are simple and brutal. 1 or 2, the unit stands and continues to fight on. 3 or 4 means they retire back 2 moves (basically to the army's base line). You can form provisional units from 2 or more of these failed CE units, but I have never seen it make a big difference. 5 or 6 the unit routs off the field causing morale checks in friendlies within 6 inches of the path. If any of those fail, they cause morale checks in turn. One or two bad rolls can quickly lead to an entire flank collapsing.

My Austrians in the center decide that they are going to fight to the last man today and pass. The French legere on their left flank rout like the cowards they are (which is way you can't see them in any of the pictures). Unfortunately no other French units fail their morale checks. The French attack continues.

Again, pictures are from Austrian left to the right flank. Apparently, I did not take a good overview picture of the action in the center this turn.